Columbus, OH – Two children left alone in an idling car this morning were overcome by carbon monoxide and had to be revived by medics.
The incident should serve as a reminder to parents that leaving children unattended in vehicles can be as dangerous now as in summer’s blistering heat, Whitehall police said.
Whitehall police and firefighters were called to the 4300 block of E. Broad Street by a mother reporting two unresponsive children in her car.
The brothers, ages 3 and 5, were revived by Whitehall medics and taken to Nationwide Children’s Hospital. They may spend the night there but should be OK, Sgt. John Grebb said.
They were both awake, alert and watching TV when officers left the hospital this afternoon, he said.
The boys had been left alone in the warming car while their mother cleared snow off the car and prepared to leave their house. She had the heat turned up to warm the car’s interior and because the car was in poor shape, exhaust fumes apparently were sucked into the passenger cabin, police said.
The mother apparently didn’t realize the boys were sick until the car stalled out soon after she started driving, Grebb said. She called for help at 9:17 a.m.
The incident was the third this week involving children left alone in cars.
On Monday, a 2-year-old was left in a car while his mother shopped at a retail store in Whitehall. The woman told police that she was in the store only a few minutes and didn’t want to wake the sleeping child. The outside temperature at the time was 11 degrees, police said. The child did not need medical treatment.
Police responded to a similar call at the same store on Feb. 21, when another mother left her 1-year-old sleeping son in her SUV while she shopped. The temperature that day was 32 degrees, police said. That boy also didn’t need treatment.
Passers-by reported both those incidents, police said.
Police said the adults in the earlier two cases have been charged with endangering children and were issued summonses to Whitehall Mayor’s Court next week. Charges are pending against the mother involved in this morning’s incident, Grebb said.